Planned Parenthood Counters Sting Video by Describing Sale of Baby Parts as ‘Tissue for Scientific Research’
GOP candidates are calling for investigations and defunding efforts.
Today Twitter exploded over a video that captures Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, discussing the sale of organs taken from the bodies of aborted babies. It’s a gruesome story and major news for anyone who cares about the dignity of human beings. The Washington Post’s story on the subject begins:
An anti-abortion group on Tuesday released an undercover video of an executive at Planned Parenthood sipping red wine while discussing in graphic detail how to abort a fetus to preserve its organs for medical research — and also the costs associated with sharing that tissue with scientists.
Planned Parenthood undoubtedly would like the firestorm to pass as soon as possible, and to that end, quickly issued a two-paragraph statement that refers to the donation of “tissue” rather than the harvesting of functioning heart, liver and lungs that Dr. Nucatola discusses in the video. The Planned Parenthood statement reads:
In health care, patients sometimes want to donate tissue to scientific research that can help lead to medical breakthroughs, such as treatments and cures for serious diseases. Women at Planned Parenthood who have abortions are no different. At several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research, and we do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does — with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards. There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or for Planned Parenthood. In some instances, actual costs, such as the cost to transport tissue to leading research centers, are reimbursed, which is standard across the medical field.
A well-funded group established for the purpose of damaging Planned Parenthood’s mission and services has promoted a heavily edited, secretly recorded videotape that falsely portrays Planned Parenthood’s participation in tissue donation programs that support lifesaving scientific research. Similar false accusations have been put forth by opponents of abortion services for decades. These groups have been widely discredited and their claims fall apart on closer examination, just as they do in this case.
The statement concedes the central charge of the organization that produced the video, but then refers vaguely to heavy editing and to similar groups and similar accusations being “widely discredited.” The thrust of the statement seems to be that of course they harvest baby parts, but it’s for SCIENCE and we’ve all agreed to refer to the dismembered late-term babies as “tissue,” so it’s OK.
As for Planned Parenthood’s claim that there is no financial benefit, this stands over against the company in the video being described as a buyer of fetal organs. Planned Parenthood has, thus far, offered no substantive rebuttal to this component of the video beyond the bare denial.
StemExpress is a five-year old privately held for-profit business located in Placerville, California that describes itself as “a multi-million dollar company that supplies human blood, tissue products, primary cells and other clinical specimens to biomedical researchers.” The company says it “offers the largest variety of raw material in the industry, as well as fresh, fixed and cryopreserved human primary cells.”
On their website, you order bone marrow, umbilical cord blood and — just like the video says — fetal liver.
And it’s not cheap.
If these numbers are representative, then significant profits are being made from these babies’ aborted bodies. And while it’s easy to accuse someone of selectively editing your conversation, that becomes harder when the entire tape is posted online, uncut.
While the mainstream media has been slow in covering the story, some Republican candidates have begun to speak out, many of them alerted to this gruesome story by pro-life leaders such as Russell Moore of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who contacted the presidential candidates on Twitter and wrote a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, asking for a congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood for the crime of human trafficking:
Carly Fiorina had the fastest response, posting a link to the story on Facebook with this statement:
I am proudly pro-life. I believe that every human life has potential and that every human life is precious. This latest news is tragic and outrageous. This isn’t about “choice.” It’s about profiting on the death of the unborn while telling women it’s about empowerment.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is directing an investigation into Planned Parenthood in his home state:
Governor Jindal said, “Today’s video of a Planned Parenthood official discussing the systematic harvesting and trafficking of human body parts is shocking and gruesome. This same organization is seeking to open an abortion clinic in New Orleans. I have instructed Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals to conduct an immediate investigation into this alleged evil and illegal activity and to not issue any licenses until this investigation is complete. I am also asking the FBI to assist DHH in investigating this alleged criminal activity by this organization.”
Rick Perry noted that he defunded Planned Parenthood in Texas:
The video showing a Planned Parenthood employee selling the body parts of aborted children is a disturbing reminder of the organization’s penchant for profiting off the tragedy of a destroyed human life. It is because of stories like this that I signed legislation defunding Planned Parenthood in the state of Texas — to protect human life and the health and safety of Texans.
